The town is in shamble after the explosion that revealed the sewer to the outside world, no one had any idea that there was a massive sewer system beneath their town, thats why everyone was so curious about it, those who initially ran away to save their lives have now gathered on the scene.
"W- what is this..."
"Do you know about this sewer?"
"No.. I never knew our town had this sewer, if everyone knew, we wouldn't be dumping our excretion in the dump backyard.."
Since the sewer is located below the town's road, the aftermath of the explosion made a large hole that is similar to a cliff, jumping from above wouldn't be a good idea.
Not long after, the town guard's have finally arrived, not just one or two division, but the entirety of Guard's unit was mobilized to investigate and take care of everything, almost a thousand troops appeared at the explosion crater and they pushed the normal pedestrians aside so that they won't be in danger incase of another explosion happened.
"O- oh, the guard's are here.. That was quick." Said one of the people in there.
One after another, many of the guards jumped down to the sewer and they entered the part where the structure was still intact.
At the entrance of the hole, the guard's saw Eldi and Marc, sitting behind a wall, they still had some armor equipped, but their condition is worse than anyone could possibly imagine.
"WE GOT A SURVIVOR!!" One of the guard shouted.
"A- ahh.. i- we survived.."
Eldi could not be any happier than this, seeing that he was about to be rescued and that he actually survived from this nightmare, it felt like a blessing that god gave him, he forced a smile and some tears dropped from his eyes.
"Marc.. we survived.."
The guards then pulled Eldi and Marc, carefully escorting them to the ground again with the work of many guards carrying their body.
Many were left shocked with their appearance, Marc was missing a leg, and Eldi got a lot of holes in his body from the acid that came from Meritas's magic, the crowds felt speechless and they wondered what had happened in the sewer while they were doing their daily activities.
The day is about to end, the sun is going down, and warm light of the sunset began to cover the earth, at this very moment, an incident that would be called one of the worst to ever happen in Achstone, happened.
***
Three days later...
"mmmhh.. eurkk.."
Eldi tries to open his eyes, but it hurts, the light that came from the sun felt like a needle, it was morning, approximately 10AM, his eyes haven't received any light for the past 3 days thats why it hurts to open them, but after readjusting and slowly opening it again, Eldi's eyes began to adapt again, after a while Eldi was able to see his surrounding, he is currently in the town's fortress, he knows it because of the cobblestone walls around him.
"Ugh.." Eldi grunted, his head aches.
Remembering what happened after he got out of the sewer, Eldi realized that he passed out shortly after the guards have escorted him out of the sewer, after that he doesn't remember anything, except what he saw before the explosion happened.
"Keep it a secret between us.. She said.."
Eldi's head suddenly throbbing in pain, his brain was trying to remember something but he couldn't point it exactly what it was.
"Urgh— What happened to Marc.. He survived too right?"
Creaaakk!!
The wooden door beside Eldi opened and someone entered the room.
"Oh? You woke up, thank god.."
It was just a normal guard that brought some food and water for Eldi.
"I'll place this here, don't come out of the room yet, commander Vilia said she wants to have a talk with you, let me call her."
The guards placed the food and water at the table near Eldi's bed, he then walked out of the room and closed the door again.
"The commander want to meet me?"
"—She must want know what happened in the sewer prior to the explosion."
Eldi looked at the food he was given, its porridge, plain porridge with no vegetables or meat.
'They fed me this while i was unconcious?' He thought, a bit disappointed.
Atleast they gave him food, so Eldi couldn't complain much, after waiting for a few minutes and ate some of the porridge, the door was finally opened again.
Creaakkk!
Soon, Commander Vilia appeared before Eldi, she has a blonde hair with ponytail, her outfit, a dark brown uniform with silver outlines and a bit of accessories, stood out even among the armored guards in the fortress.
Vilia walked towards Eldi and stares at him right in the eye, her face is quite scary if you were to met her for the first time, but Eldi was one of the people who have seen her many times that he knew she is actually not a bad leader.
"How's your condition?" She asked.
"Not too bad, i can move both of my arms pretty well, but i don't know about walking or standing up."
"That's good, now-
"Before you asked me questions, can i ask about Marc? How is he? did he survive?.."
The room fell silent, Vilia looked at Eldi for a few seconds, thinking about what answer she would use, but it all came down to one word.
"No.. I'm sorry."
That answer stabbed Eldi right on his heart, he was expecting that Marc had a chance to be dead or alive, but he just don't want to believe that his friend would die just like that, he was stronger, that's what he thought, Marc wouldn't die just from his leg being cut off, but reality made a different choice.
"Is that so.."
Yet another tear dropped from Eldi's eyes, he wants to grieve, but he also doesn't want to look weak infront of Commander Vilia, so he held his tears and goes back to focusing with what he is dealing with currently.
"Im sorry for your loss, don't let this affect your job, Marc died with honor, he was protecting the town from danger, and he would be happy to see you smile instead of crying over his death."
"You're right, commander." Eldi wiped his tears off of his eyes.
"Alright, back to the topic, you want to ask me about what happened right?"
"Im glad you're quick, it would be better if you tell me everything Eldi, we found Captain Jade in the same sewer a few days ago, but he was already dead, it's a bit unusual because usually someone shouldn't die just because their neck got rotated like that, especially for someone as strong as Captain Jade— So i hope you can explain it."
"— Alright."
And so, Eldi began telling Vilia everything that has happened, starting from the moment he got an order from Captain Jade to the reason about his injury and the death of everyone in his division.
Compiling it together, with questions asked from Commander Vilia, it took Eldi an hour to explain everything.
As for the Sylias's appearance and also her punch that caused the explosion..
"— Are you serious?" Vilia asked.
"Im serious Commander, i can swear it on my life.."
"sigh— What a problem, so you're saying you can't remember the face of person that caused the explosion?"
"I- i don't know why, i can clearly remember that there's someone else in the sewer other than Mortem and his subordinate— There was a woman, and.. And she told me that i should keep the secret between both of us, she was the one that caused the explosion! but i couldn't remember her face at all.. My brain hurts everytime i try to remember it."
"Is it a magic spell?! Did that woman cursed you!? Should i call the priest?
"S- sure.."
"Alright, just wait here okay?"
Vilia stood up and began walking away, Eldi waiting for about 20 minutes before she comes back with a Priest that is capable of identifying curses.
The priest started by touching Eldi's forehead.
"No abnormality."
After confirming his temperature to be normal, the priest then lifted both of his hand and starts to chant a spell, a glowing green magic circle appeared between his hands and Eldi's body glows in green light, the process took 10 seconds and after the timer ended, the spell disappeared.
"Huh?.." Said the Priest.
"What is it? Does he really inflicted with a curse?"
"Ah- No.. I was surprised because he appears to not have any curses whatsoever.."
"What!?"
Both Eldi and Vilia was shocked upon hearing the Priest's answer, they thought that he might be lying, but it was very unlikely since he is a Priest, so they were confused.
"What do you mean by that? He doesn't have any curses inside his body?" Vilia asked.
"Y- yes.. I really checked, There's a two possibility as to why i can't detect any curse inside of his body."
"That possibility is?..."
"One, there was really no curses to begin with and the reason why this man can't remember about something in the past is due to an injury on his brain, maybe he got hit on the head pretty hard— And the other possibility is that, there was really a curse inside of his body, but my magic was not able to detect it due to the curse being way stronger than my magic.."
The room went quite after the priest was done with his word, both Vilia and Eldi doesn't know what they should trust, if Eldi is truly free from curses, then what the priest said about head injury causing it might be true, but on the other hand, there was a possibility that the curses in Eldi's body is just way to strong.
All of the people in the room ponders with what they should do next, because who knows what kind of things would happen next, knowing someone that is multiple times stronger than Mortem is on the loose.